I have a playlist on my phone that is frequently updated with the newest worship music. I love that I don’t have to search, and I often come across music I would never have heard otherwise. A few months ago, a lovely song began to play while driving to work. The chorus had a simple and repetitive refrain, singing “I plead the blood. I plead the blood of Jesus.” It went in one ear and out the other for the first few repetitions until I suddenly became self-aware, realizing how foreign that phrase sounded. They might as well have been singing in another language at that moment because I couldn’t help but wonder, “What’s with the blood, and why are we pleading it?”
I learned several years ago that Christians have their own language called “Christianese.” It’s purely cultural and acts as a pseudo-wink to other Christians to let them know you’re in the club, not out of it. Phrases like “prayed up,” “loved on,” “hedge of protection,” and “traveling mercies” are all examples of Christianese (just to name a few). They’re all Scripture-adjacent without being explicitly Scriptural. In other words, you won’t find these phrases in the Bible, but you may find Scriptures that (sort of) explain their meaning.
When I ask my son to articulate the definition of his Gen Alpha phrases like “skibidi” or “bussin’,” he says quite a bit without saying really anything at all. Their phrases make sense among their fellow Alphas, but that’s it. Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” I question whether or not many of us fluent in Christianese would be found guilty of the same problem as those who speak Gen Alpha. If we were asked to articulate what “I plead the blood of Jesus” meant, could we say it simply, or would we end up saying a lot without really saying anything at all?
It is not that I dislike Christianese or find them heretical, but I wonder often if we understand the significance of the things we describe. Perhaps we have become so familiar with the language of the Church that we have become numb to the miraculous work that called us together in the first place. We toss out words like “sanctification,” “blessing,” and “salvation by grace” as though they are common household goods. They are more than that. They are the words that connect us to the history of Christendom, that set us apart from other religions, ideologies, and identities. They are to trigger our reflection on and reverence for the wondrous work of the cross.
So, I invite you to take notice this week of common Christian words or phrases you use that may have lost their significance. Together, over the next several weeks, we are going to dive deeper into the language of the Church, affectionately termed “Christianese,” to reinvigorate our regard for the words that uniquely mark us as followers of Jesus Christ, our Savior, and Lord.
